RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

BP said the impact appeared to be limited to the 1.5 acres immediately around the well and that there were no reports of injuries or damage to wildlife.

Lois Epstein, Arctic programme director for The Wilderness Society, an environmental group in Anchorage, Alaska, told Bloomberg: 'This really needs to be thoroughly investigated to find out what went wrong and whether there's a danger of it happening again.'

A BP spokesman said: 'Clean-up and remediation work will be completed once the well is secured.'

Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation is investigating the cause of the leak with BP and the Alaska Oil And Gas Conservation Commission.